Rent Tickets - Broadway Musical

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Rent The Musical Performance Locations

The Story Behind Rent

Rent is a rock opera that was first ran at the New York Theatre Workshop for three weeks in 1994. The show's creator, Jonathan Larson, collapsed from an aortic aneurysm one week before Rent's first preview. He later told friends that he couldn't believe that the last burst of music he would hear might be his own song about dying. He was diagnosed at the hospital with food poisoning. Doctors at a second hospital told him a few days later that he had the flu. He went to the final dress rehearsal of Rent, but that was the last show he would see. He went home that night and died. His roommate found him on the kitchen floor. He was only 35 years old.

Rent starts on Christmas Eve. Mark, a filmmaker, is shooting an unscripted documentary. He puts the camera on his roommate, Roger Davis. Roger is a former drug addict and songwriter. He has not left their apartment for six months. He is still very upset about his girlfriend committing suicide when she learned that they had AIDS. The first is from Mark's mom giving her condolences about the loss of his girlfriend, Maureen, to Joanne. The second is from their friend Tom Collins who is detained by muggers and the third is from their landlord, Benny, demanding that rent. He had previously told them that they could live there for free. They decide to refuse to pay him the rent.

Maureen holds a protest at a nearby lot against Benny's eviction of the homeless. Benny tells Mark and Roger that if they stop her protest, he will not make them pay rent. Roger refuses to leave. Mimi, an S&M dancer that lives below them, comes up to Roger's apartment and kisses him passionately. She rejects him. He decides to go outside. Roger and Mimi later discover that the other has HIV. They vow to be together.

At the end of the following summer, Roger and Mimi break up, as do Maureen and Joanne. Collins girlfriend Angel dies. Roger decides to leave town and Mimi has gone back to Benny. Joanne and Maureen decide to get back together.

Roger returns for Christmas. Maureen and Joanne come in holding Mimi who had collapsed in the park. Roger begs her not to die and sings her a song he wrote to her, "Your Eyes". Suddenly Mimi awakens; it seems that a guardian Angel was watching over her.

Rent has collected the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, The Obie Award, and the Tony Award. Rent was on the cover of Newsweek. Time called it a "breakthrough," The New York Times "an exhilarating landmark." The cast says it recognizes the same people coming back to watch the show over and over. Rent has become a global phenomenon, selling out in England, Japan, Australia and Germany, among others

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